A common and simple gift during the holiday season is sometimes a bottle of red wine but the questions remains… how do you decide?
What is considered a good wine gift?
Of course we the time of year, the occasion, what you might be eating and finally, your budget. What if I told you that In High Five Wine Club for the last three months we have been scoring the perfect three wines for you to choose from for the perfect gifts that hit all of those points.
Each of these three wines pair nicely with Christmas dinners and plenty of other comforting winter time meals, they’re consistent in quality, they are remarkably affordable and most importantly, they’re red. Because, you know, Christmas colours and all that! 🍷
What they are not is your typical Cabernet Sauvignons or Pinot Noirs. And while these options are perfectly well and good, they differ substantially from winery to winery. They can be from the same place and taste completely different. That’s great fun for someone like me who studies wine for a living but for the average every day wine drinker what we know is that people like consistency and a bang for their buck. So let’s introduce our friends and family to wines offering exactly that!
Tempranillo From Spain
$20 is plenty for a good, even great Tempranillo. In fact many of my online wine club members scored HIGH FIVES in the five weeks we spent scoring Tempranillo together and they were all $23 or less. Look for wines from the Spanish section that say Rioja or Tempranillo and read the back of the label to see if the wine mentions being a blend. To be sure you can even spend a minute googling the wine by name and vintage to see if it’s 100% Tempranillo. Some countries don’t always say what kind of wine is in the bottle because they’re labeled by region instead. That can make it really frustrating. Rioja is a wine growing region in Spain and Tempranillo is the main red grape grown here. However, there is a second main red grape that deserves a spotlight here on our list today! But first!
aroma & taste:
- Plums
- Earthiness (dried leaves, dried herbs, dried tobacco)
- Leather
- Coffee
- Cherries
- Chocolate
- Vanilla
- Raspberries
- Licorice
- Figs
- Cedar
- Brown sugar
- Flowers
The High Five Wine Club community found Tempranillo to be consistent in aromas, flavour and overall quality. We thought the flavours were rich, complex (as in not just one dimensional - which I teach you all about in my book High Five Wine Scoring System) and had a little bit of residual sugar that contributed to a beautiful medium-bodied wine. We scored more High Fives as a community during our month scoring Tempranillo than any other single month in High Five Wine Academy history! Suffice to say, Tempranillo is a great wine gift idea!
Garnacha From Spain
Continuing on the theme of similar price-points, let’s talk about practical and super food-friendly wine, Garnacha! For $20 or less you’re going to get yourself a good quality bottle of wine perfect for gifting this Christmas season. The High Five Wine Club community agreed about the gorgeous aromas from the four scorings we did together all featuring Spanish Garnacha. The smells coming out of our glasses were dreamy, intoxicating and overall just very beautiful. If Garnacha was a perfume, we’d have it stockpiled!
aroma & taste:
- Stewed strawberry
- Blood orange
- Raspberries
- Cherries
- Plums
- Blackberries
- Dried herbs
- Anise
- Cinnamon
- Vanilla
- Chocolate
- Leather
- Tobacco
- Fruit Roll Ups
- Figs
- Red licorice
- Gamey meats
- Dried flowers
The High Five Wine Club community thought these wines were well balanced, fruit-forward and really appealing! Once again we were all delighted with a record breaking month of high scores - plenty of four-out-of-five as well as HIGH FIVE scores using our High Five Wine Scoring System wine journal book! That would be a wonderful accompaniment to any wine gift! How about a gorgeous wine journal to keep a record of the wines you try! Stocking stuffer combo! Garnacha really stood out because of its versatility in the food department. You could pair this wine with anything from braised pork to duck with cherry sauce and even a burger with smoked gouda and BBQ sauce! Yum!
Carménère From Chile
We’re sticking to wallet friendly wines with consistent and dependable Carménère from Chile. Is it ok to give wine as a gift? If you’re offering Carménère then my answer is yes, absolutely! A fun fact about this grape is when it was originally planted in Chile in the 1850’s it was believed to be Merlot! It wasn’t until 1994 when it was discovered to actually be Carménère. It does share many similarities and so if you know someone in your life who loves Merlot then this would be such an interesting gift! You just might be introducing your friend or family member to their next new favourite wine to explore! (You’re welcome!)
A good quality Chilean Carménère will cost you between $12-$15, a great one will be $16-$25 and beyond. That’s pretty promising!
aroma & taste:
- Plums
- Black cherries
- Raspberries
- Blackberries
- Chocolate
- Gamey meats
- Black pepper
- Green peppercorns
- Bell pepper
- Mocha
- Herbs
- Smoke
- Earthiness
This is a great stocking stuffer for any red wine lover! It has an inky dark colour that is oh so pretty, a beautifully smokey aroma with plenty of fruity notes and finally it pairs well with leaner cuts of meat, roasted veggies and earth sauces like chimichurri. Remember that smokey note? Any time you see a wine with smoke as a potential aroma or flavour you can bet it will go well with BBQ flavours!
No matter which of these three wines you choose, your gift will be one to remember! It won’t be a typical wine you see often and it will be a welcome to surprise to know that if they really loved their wine they can find it easily and for such a great price! Win-Win!
Final Thoughts and Tips On Holiday Wine Gift Ideas
The gift giver is often plagued with questions about what to give and how much to spend.
Is a $30 bottle of wine a good gift?
Let me ask you another question.
What if you bought your friend a bottle of wine that was very expensive. First, the price of the wine never guarantees whether or not someone will enjoy that specific wine so unless you’re 100% sure your gift receiver is a die-hard Chablis fan (for example) - don’t go out and spend $70 on a Chablis.
The second thought I have is if you do spend $70 or even $30 on a Chablis and they absolutely LOVE it, is this a wine within your gift receivers budget to enjoy again?
The price tag on the bottle matters less than you might think!
And finally, if you’re really stumped and feel a bit overwhelmed by the thought of buying wine as a gift, maybe the right thing to do is to buy a wine gift card! You can’t go wrong there.
Happy Holidays!
xo
Tonia
As we explore new wines and growing regions from all over the world I am almost speechless about the five weeks I spent leading High Five Wine Academy, an online wine club in Canada, in October of 2024.
As a wine coach I value education that includes wines we are familiar with while also helping you step out of your comfort zone. Inch by inch! It can be easier to broaden horizons when you’re in the company of fellow wine students (aren’t we all wine students? Fun Fact: YES YES YES! Wine for beginners. Wine for normal people!) plus you have the guidance of your very own Wine Coach to help you do it! Let me share what it looks like to learn about wine online with me in High Five Wine Club!
With five Wednesdays in October my Wine Besties and I set off to Spain to score Tempranillo!
Now, one important thing we talked about was familiarity. Tempranillo isn’t exactly a household wine in Canada so we’re not necessarily reaching for it as our go-to wine.
Think back to when you moved out of your parents house for the first time and found yourself in the store looking for cleaning supplies. You gravitate to familiar brands without even realizing it.
Oh thank god, I KNOW windex, ok I’ll grab that. Whew, I made a good decision.
Wine is the same! Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Merlot, Sauvignon Blanc… we see them in our home, on restaurant menus and we feel comfortable with that.
I’ll have a glass of one of those, please.
It’s comforting, even if we don’t necessarily like it, because it’s familiar! This is how many-a-wine-lover stays drinking the same label over and over again. The theory is just human nature! Even toddlers prefer goldfish crackers over strawberries because the crackers taste the same every single time. We rely on consistency!
I have a few really important reasons for my next argument so stay with me…
Tempranillo isn’t usually available by the glass in restaurants but it should be!
Tempranillo isn’t talked about as a wine for beginners but it should be!
Why?
After a month of focusing on this Spanish revelation I have come to an interesting conclusion. Tempranillo is the perfect introductory red wine for new wine drinkers. My theory is in part due to its consistency and also because of its extremely accessible price point.
What it boils down to is this.
Red wine can be expensive, especially when it comes to wine for beginners. When you’re unsure of what to buy, even a $20 bottle of red wine can seem like too much. Then if you do find a red wine you like you might try a new one of the same grape (Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, etc) and it tastes completely different!
What gives!
Tempranillo wines from Spain are all pretty similar. They smell alike. They have the same tasting profile. After scoring five in a row in High Five Wine Academy (only the best wine club in Canada!) we all were surprised by how dependable this wine grape was! Each week we really enjoyed them, enough that we have all purchased more Tempranillo (even though we have moved on to a new wine together as an online wine club).
Why isn’t Tempranillo as a household name?
If we walked through the Spanish section not all of the labels will tell you what type of wine is in the bottle. A red wine from Rioja (the biggest wine region in Spain) could be Tempranillo, Garnacha or even a blend of a few different grapes. A new wine drinker’s brain would explode! It would make you turn on your heel and return to safety among the California Cabernets or the New Zealand Sauvignon Blancs. I wouldn’t blame you!
This is a really common and completely understandable problem when it comes to understanding wine.
One thing even I still do in the wine store that absolutely nobody will ever judge you for is researching in real time. If you don’t know what’s inside the bottle after reading the label, whip out your phone and do some digging. See if you can identify the name of the wine and type it into google, asking what the wine is made of.
The reason High Five Wine Club exists is to take away the guesswork while creating a safe, fun and interactive environment to explore new wines. The best place to start is with a copy of High Five Wine Scoring System so you can journal and keep track of the wines you score, whether with us in High Five Wine Academy on Wednesday evenings or on your own. The second step is to purchase your monthly membership to High Five Wine Club so you have access to all of the calls, recipes, community, education, tips and friendship!
So what does Tempranillo taste like?
Well, for starters it is earthy (think dried herbs, dried leaves, dried tobacco) with plums and red licorice followed by a chalky, smooth texture. Sweetness, acidity and alcohol are well-balanced so not one single element is overwhelming to your palate. They are typically medium bodied, referring to the weight of the wine with great complexity.
PLUS! You can find excellent bottles of Tempranillo for $15-$22!
Tempranillo pairs with really well with very common meals like pizza, nachos, burritos, lasagna (or any tomato based dish), mushroom risotto, BBQ and more.
This is a superb red wine for beginners!
And if you want to learn more about wine and you’ve ever asked yourself, why is wine tasting so difficult, then the High Five Wine Club is for you! Get your first month’s membership for only $5 here! Join High Five Wine Club!
xo
Tonia
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